My chosen artist

The artist i have chosen to make my music video for is Alex Fiction; Alex is a German house music artist who create remixes for already existent songs as well as his own tracks. He is producer, artist, live act and dj, but before progressing to this standard he first started learning to play the harmonica in his younger years, to them move on to playing the guitar and developed his musical skills further.In his early teenage years the fiction played rhythm guitar and yelled with a crossover band in his home town, then at age 16 Alex wrote his first rap lyrics after having been freestyling for two years; from then on he became fond of the Hip Hop culture, whether it was beatmaking, rapping, graffiti writing or breaking. 

He then introduced himself to electronic music, but didn't pursue it, but after a break of two years he started doing electronic music all over again. With one of his close friends Alex then started producing house tracks, and has continued to develop his work ever since with his most recent tracks: One more daim time and Join the club. As well as creating his own music Alex has also remixed some tracks in his own style, such as: Dr.Berger - ROS and Watson & Creek - Change.  

Moodboard

I have created a word-board with all the different house music artist that have individually inspired me to chose this genre of music; all have successful house music tracks and music videos that I aim to research into to gain more inspiration for my own music video. 

I have also created a mood board of images that I feel represent the house music genre in a visual way.

Searching for my song

After considering a range of different genres I came to the conclusion that I wanted to choose house music as it was a genre I had never really listened to before and wanted to explore something new. The house music scene has raised hugely over the past year, reaching a similar height of popularity it had in the 1980's, I wanted to use this to my advantage as it would keep my track and music video relevant and current. I felt this video would be easy to create because it was realistic for my budget, as most house videos are shot at low cost using mostly editing to create effect rather than the shots themselves. We were assigned to find an unsigned artist for the reason that we will not be influenced by videos or images created for signed bands/artists. I thought this was an advantage as it meant i could create something completely fresh and new, true to my own style.

Finding an unsigned band seemed like a tough task to take on at first but once I knew where to look it became a lot easier, I searched on sites such as www.unsignedartist.com, www.unsigned.com and www.soundcloud.com where unsigned artist and bands put their music on in order to get recognition. 

The site I used the most was unsigned.com as I felt it was the easiest and quickest to navigate because of the tool bars located on the right hand side of the page that allowed you to scale down your search. Once I had clicked the House category my search became a lot easier. 

The only issue I had with unsigned.com was that I couldn't download my chosen song from the website, so I had to find it elsewhere and download it so i could start creating my video to the music. Luckily i found the song on YouTube, so I downloaded this on video2mp3.com, a YouTube converting website, and imported it to ITunes then copied it from ITunes over to Imovie.  

Kate Nash - Foundations music video analysis

I chose to analyse this video not because of the genre it falls into but because of the style in which it was shot inspired me immensely, I especially liked the way the objects were personified and the people were objectified; I plan to make my video similar in this way. The video is set in a very regular, homely environment. Which as first could suggest a sense of normality between the couple; however this is soon contradicted. 

The video opens with close-ups and mid-shots of regular, everyday items; many being personified to represent the relationship between the couple. The toothbrushes, watches and socks are all seen in pairs, they are constantly being drawn to and away from each other, much like the couple in the video, and these items are shot in quick, clean cut shots to keep up a fast but consistent pace to the video. Other objects were used in a similar way throughout the video, such as the board game and playing cards are used to imply the mental game the couple  are playing with each other. The couple playing the board games are shot with close-ups, a typical convention of the pop genre, showing a direct mode of address and focusing on their clear facial expressions facial expressions which as quite unresponsive suggesting they are too used to these problems happening that it has become an everyday occurrence for them. 

Kate Nash, who plays the female protagonist in the video, kicks a ball into a group of heels, this could signify a rejection of femininity, which contradicts the fact that her toothbrush in the video is pink, a typical colour for the female gender. A similar rejection is shown when a low angle shot of the couple’s feet under the dinner table shows Kate move her feet away from her boyfriends as he tries to bring his closer, showing a lack of affection between them both.

There are both underlying narrative and visual links between the lyrics and music video; underlying narrative such as when Kate looks to the goldfish when singing ‘humiliate us in front our friends’ this discrete visual is seen as humorous and sarcastic. 

However then Kate eats the lemons to demonstrate her smugness when she sings ‘you say I must eat so many lemons, because i am so bitter’. Then her desire for conflict shines through with ‘it gives me thrills to wind you up’, where she winds a baby toy up, objectifying her boyfriend as a toy in which she controls presenting her as the dominant one in the relation, again rejecting her femininity as males are normally seen as the powerful party within a relationship. 

The animation of dinosaurs spinning suggests their relationship is spinning round in circles because nothing ever changes with them, as well as primarily adding to the childish lexis of the video.  the childish theme carries on when the couple are shot in bed together with the teddy bear which is placed in-between them, suggesting distance between them. The couple originally sleep fairly close together then end up completely apart, and even when one moves closer unknowingly in their sleep the other still rolls over to keep a fair distance between them. This scene is shot from overhead to allow the audience to feel omniscient and have a further insight into the couples relationship,in addition the high angled shot ultimately makes them look vulnerable.

Juxtaposition is used with the flowers placed inside a beer bottle, using a birds-eye view shot, showing the connection between typical male and female items; this is repeated with male and female socks entwining together and then separating (similarly to how the couple sleep). 

Kate is seen alone mostly for the rest of the video, and the love turns into aggression with the hands fighting and clear gender clashes and differences; the high angle tilted view shows Kate Nash making a cake, and the male interfering, resulting in her slapping his hand. With the watches moulding together shows she wants to hold on to the time they have left with each other, suggesting she knows their relationship will be ending soon (linking to her being alone for the rest of the video) because of the constant up-happiness they are both feeling; the faces she creates with her dinner back up her sadness through objectification.

Eventually all of the objects are separated or destroyed such as the toothbrushes, the watches, socks, the picture of them placed face down, the dinner thrown in the bin and her suitcase packed. When Kate Nash walks out it ends dramatically with the door poster saying ‘don’t fall for this’ which creates a sense of irony.

Music video analysis using Goodwin's theory

In almost all music videos it is important that the song relates back to the video. The lyrics in the song Rabbit Heart (Raise it up) by Florence and the Machine relate directly back to the video as the song goes, ‘we raise it up, this offering, we raise it up’. Towards the end of the video Welch is shown being pushed out onto a river in a coffin-like box as part of an almost biblical ritual. 

In relation to the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work, this is presented in this video as for instance in Florence and the Machine’s video a great amount of close-ups are used to show off the artist. In fact the first shot of the video is a close up of Florence. You can also see this in Paramore’s video where numerous close-ups are used to show the band.

A frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body portayed in the video when Florence is seen with laying on a table and the camera being on her in a voyeuristic like manor. 

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Oren Lavie - Her morning elegance music video analysis

I chose to analyse this video again for the stop motion theme the director has chosen to use for video; i like the way the bed had been made to play out the female protagonists whole day without her even moving from her bedroom. 

The video begins with an aerial shot of the performer lying on the bed. The bed is used as the mise-en-scene throughout the whole video, orienting the viewer and constructing a sense of continuity and stability – relevant to stop motion videos in particular. Through stop motion, the light is seen to drift across the bed, implying a sense of beginning and renewal. The lighting used is chiaroscuro, and constructs a natural setting – as light is seen to be emitted from a single window.

The shot then changes and there is a close-up on the performer’s face lying in bed. This implies closeness and intimacy, a contrast from the first shot – thus making a balanced and rounded opening to the video. All in stop motion, the covers of the bed are pulled off the performer as she begins to walk on pillows down imaginary stairs. In this way, the director constructs a surrealistic dimension to the video, which is identified as a generic convention of stop motion music videos. In a reinforcement of the surreal and slightly random sense to the video, a violin enters from the left of the screen and plays on the performer’s head, enhanced through the resulting diegetic sound. Violins are obviously synonymous with music, therefore the director reminds and orientates the viewer, and the video’s genre of indie rock is accentuated.
A close-up is again used by the director, breaking away from the constant long shot/master shot. This gives the video variety and more realism than before, increasing its validity as a narrative. The theme of progression is conveyed by the director through the use of stop motion. The performer is shown to be walking and the mise-en-scene changes as she walks. In this way, the performer is given control over her surroundings and the methodology of the video is continuous. By using a controlling female performer, the director supports the neo-dominant ideology that the independent rock scene is becoming a more gender equal genre. The video is made slightly humorous later in the video, when the bed is turned into an urban park. This is surreal, as from the long shot, the viewer can see the laminate flooring with pieces of mise-en-scene laid on the floor, such as a hairdryer and books. These pieces of mise-en-scene are synonymous with the bedroom, and moreover offer the video a second meaning. This also breaks the dramatically labelled ‘fourth wall’ – a generic convention of stop motion music videos.
The main location of the bed is used to create a flat window which the performer stands and looks out from. This constructs a romantic image, which coincides with the music – which is of a slow and soft nature. The camera shot remains as a long shot, taken from a high angle. This continuity is particularly prominent in stop motion videos, as it is vital that continuity is kept to make the video authentic and in a more explicit sense: believable. The performer then crawls back into bed and the cover scrunches up around her body, all in a long shot. In this way, the director creates a rounded visual image and portrays the cycle of night and day. This creates a balanced narrative, in the way that the narrative is more flowing and not focused on a particular event.This video has enabled us to become aware of how many shots are needed in order for our video to look fluent and more professional, so that our audience can easily understand what is happening in the video through the detailed movements we create in our animation. We need to focus on this aspect of the video in order for our video to be taken seriously and for the hours of work put into the video to show.

Swedish House Mafia - One (your name) music video analysis

This is one of the first shots in the video, it seems unusual yet it stands out because it is bright white, mixed with other pastel colours, the shot looks bold, so it draws your eye in. The editing pace in this sequence is quite fast, it matches the pace of the music, the clever thing about this part of the video is that the recording device in the shot is made to be controlling the sound of the song, which is interesting because it’s not often used in music videos like that.

An extreme close up of a woman's eye is shown with the lyrics to the song in the middle over her pupil, this adds interest to he video and is an effective way to present the lyrics. This could also connote the woman's eyes are telling us she wants to know your name without her actually having to say anything, the eye stares in to the camera which creates a direct mode of address. 

A mid shot of a man is used with a centre framing, a negative lighting has been used to create an interesting and unusual effect on the shot. This links to the luminous colours used throughout the rest of the video. Lighting is incredibly important in this genre of music, to create a club type of mood to the video.  

This is the first birdseye shot we get, of the table and the people around it, during the video the look and things around the table begin to change, in this shot for instance there are various wires, a fan and some chain around, signifying this may be the ‘setting up, getting ready’ stage of the party.

Again we see another birdseye shot of the table, this time though we see more people, which appear now to be our main focus. There is an interesting use of costume in this shot, as the people who are in the room seem to be wearing masks usually associated with breakdance, although they are wearing them on the tops of their heads giving the audience a very surreal, confused presentation, despite that it is very interesting, and does create a good look. The editing in this part is especially quick.
  

The editing pace at this point is at its fastest. In this shot we see the birds eye view of the table has changed again, this time we see confetti and nobody around the table the shot is mostly of a dark black colour and just the one man Dj-ing the music. This could be a pointer in the narrative of the video as this may be the peak of the party, and it’s now about to start dying down.

In this shot, we see how the song title and lyrics are highlighted, this is one of the only points in the video that we can salvage some sort of narrative structure. The song seems to be based around the general club scene and meeting people. This therefore highlights that point. It is an interesting shot because along with the rest of the style of the video, this you would normally pick up on as not part of the same style; however it manages to work in this video, maybe because of the fast editing pace or because the lighting of the shot is still fairly low/dark.This shot is interesting also, because it has changed from the similar shot of the birds eye with the masked people in, to a close up of this man, we see a different use of editing here as there is effect to the fact he is breathing fire. There is also an interesting use of sound stings throughout the video, there is layered sound above that of the actual music track, giving the video more depth and making it more effective, the sounds almost act as sound effects to certain things people are doing e.g. glass breaking. This becomes especially apparent towards the end of the video. 


We then see the silhouette of a woman dancing, throughout this the lighting in the background changes, to a red colour to black and white, which is again unusual because it is in contrast to the rest of the video, which is in colour. However the dancing is obviously significant to the song.

In this shot we see a close up of a woman’s lips, the background is very out of focus, we understand that the use of close up on lips in music video’s is very conventionally popular, I know this from the research I did on conventions of music videos. 

As you can see this shot is a strong contrast to the one above, on it’s own it even looks like a picture rather than part of a video. The interesting thing about this shot is that the front layer is of the tape recording image again, yet the background is full of colour, there is an actor waving a flare light around, as this is when the end bridge of the song comes in, it matches the pace of the music really well, and the count down on the tape recorder makes it even more powerful because you are anticipating what is going to happen next.

As you can see this shot is a strong contrast to the one above, on it’s own it even looks like a picture rather than part of a video. The interesting thing about this shot is that the front layer is of the tape recording image again, yet the background is full of colour, there is an actor waving a flare light around, as this is when the end bridge of the song comes in, it matches the pace of the music really well, and the count down on the tape recorder makes it even more powerful because you are anticipating what is going to happen next.

The next few shots and ones before hand are mostly close ups of the recording device again, which keep our attention drawn to what is happening, another interesting thing that is used too, is the fact that the lyrics often appear on screen, which is not common in music videos because it often looks amateur. However with the technique being used in this video, it doesn’t give it that effect; within the next few shots that are shown also, the editing progresses and gets faster, with the addition of the sides of the shots moving to make the illusion of loud speakers when they jump.

This next shot, is of a break dancer, again wearing a mask. However the shot is framed oddly, it appears again to be birdseye but gives the illusion that the dancer is dancing on a vertical wall, which is impressive to look at. The editing again here is very quick.

Daft Punk - Around the world music video analysis

 'Around the world' is a song by abstract artists Daft Punk; taken from the album 'homework' released in 1997. The song is most recognised for its simplistic and repeated lyrics, but also for its memorable music video which was directed by Michel Gondry. The video was very unique for its time of release and took the attention of many, the typical music video in the late 90’s consisted of mainly performance from the band or artist. Around the world became hugely popular and soon became a hit song in the dance charts.

The music video contains five different groups of characters dressed as robots, synchronised swimmers, skeletons, mummies and athletes with prosthetic heads performing a dance sequence on a circle platform in the form a vinyl record. Each group of four represent a different instrument, according to Gondry the robots link to the futuristic edit use of the voice singing in the track, the figures dressed in tracksuits with prosthetic heads link to the fast pace bass guitar, the female swimmers go with the high pitched keyboard, the skeletons with the guitar line and the mummies with the beat of the drum, each of these are meant to act as a visual representation of the song. 

The video consisted of many shots angles and camera movements throughout. It was opened with a long establishing shot showing everything within the scene. Zooms in and out were used to focus the viewer on specific shots, such as individual dancers in the dance groups. Tracking shots were used to follow the movement of some of the characters, especially the robots as they are one of the3 main features in the video, tracking particularly in a circular motions to link with lyrics and title ‘around the world’. Ariel/ birds eye view shots were also used various times in the video to capture all angles of the dance being performed below as the stage rotated. 

Lighting, artificial only, was used to create a certain mood for the video and liked well with the dance style of the track; the majority of the video was shot in dark lighting with only the interchanging, flashing circle lights shining on the back drop behind the dancers on the stage. The change in the lights were edited to the beat of the song so they flashed in a different colour as the music dropped or the bridge changed; the lighting used were the main focus of the video over the dancers. 

The editing on the video was minimal other than clean cut transitions from each shot, which would typically be used to create verisimilitude but this is contradicted by the strange narrative of the video. the sound used in the video is also minimal with no added dietetic sound for effect, only the track with the use of guitar, keyboard, bass guitar etc. However the vocals have been auto-tuned and edited in a futuristic robot like voice to make the song sound quirky and unique. 

Mise-en-scene in an important factor of this music video, particularly costume which is one of the key aspects. Since this video the robots in the silver helmets are not iconic to daft punk and are related to them and used in every video since. The five groups of dancers are each individually styled with very specific costumes which make each one stand out from another, each group is used to represents the diversity of people around the world which again links to the title of the song and the only lyrics used. There’s little use of props within the video as the characters involved are dancing throughout with no need for any added props. The rounded stage used in the video is shaped to look like a vinyl record which links to the time period, the style of the music and the dancing performed throughout, the shape of the stage could also link to the title of the song ‘around the world’ the stage also included a higher platform with a set of stairs leading up to it, all in the same light grey shade to blend in with the background and not stand out too much in front of the lights used in the backdrop.